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This paper provides a structured literature review of blockchain in accounting. The authors identify current trends, analyse and critique the key topics of research and discuss the future of this nascent field of inquiry.

This study’s analysis combined a structured literature review with citation analysis, topic modelling using a machine learning approach and a manual review of selected articles. The corpus comprised 153 academic papers from two ranked journal lists, the Association of Business Schools (ABS) and the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), and from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). From this, the authors analysed and critiqued the current and future research trends in the four most predominant topics of research in blockchain for accounting.

Blockchain is not yet a mainstream accounting topic, and most of the current literature is normative. The four most commonly discussed areas of blockchain include the changing role of accountants; new challenges for auditors; opportunities and challenges of blockchain technology application; and the regulation of cryptoassets. While blockchain will likely be disruptive to accounting and auditing, there will still be a need for these roles. With the sheer volume of information that blockchain records, both professions may shift out of the back-office toward higher-profile advisory roles where accountants try to align competitive intelligence with business strategy, and auditors are called on ex ante to verify transactions and even whole ecosystems.

The authors identify several challenges that will need to be examined in future research. Challenges include skilling up for a new paradigm, the logistical issues associated with managing and monitoring multiple parties all contributing to various public and private blockchains, and the pressing need for legal frameworks to regulate cryptoassets.

The possibilities that blockchain brings to information disclosure, fraud detection and overcoming the threat of shadow dealings in developing countries all contribute to the importance of further investigation into blockchain in accounting.

The authors’ structured literature review uniquely identifies critical research topics for developing future research directions related to blockchain in accounting.

The current security trade settlement life cycle presents several inefficiencies derived from intermediaries involved in the transaction between buyers and sellers. This chapter examines distributed ledger technology (DLT), the underlying technology of all blockchain applications, including trade settlements. It also reviews the implications of using blockchain in trade settlements for cryptoassets. Emerging blockchain technology provides investors, exchanges, regulators, and countless potential intermediaries with the most up-to-date technology with the highest efficiency, transparency, credibility, and automation enabled by smart contracts. Smart contracts allow an ecosystem to manage the process of trade settlements starting from execution to clearing and then settlement. These contracts reduce reconciliation and recordkeeping costs and streamline repetitive processes present in today’s trade settlement system. The chapter highlights the benefits of implementing DLT in financial markets globally in all trading aspects, including cryptoassets.

This chapter first examines how the confluence of the three forces discussed in the previous chapter is affecting demand and supply dynamics and giving rise to new business models that could form the core of the emerging digital financial landscape. This chapter then examines the challenges that arise from these new business models as well as from digitalization of financial services in general. The next chapter will review how these challenges might affect monetary and financial stability and the strategy that central banks might use to address them.

Previous work has explored the ability of auditors to expand successfully into seemingly unrelated fields, referred to as new audit spaces. The present paper focuses on how auditors respond to challenges when entering a new audit field and devising strategies to sensemake and sensegive about those challenges.

This study builds on findings from 32 interviews with auditors and participant observation of interactions between auditors and blockchainers to understand how auditors approached a new audit space.

We find that when auditors enter a new audit space, they endeavour to impose a logic of auditability. First, they determine an acceptable knowledge basis for this target audit space by developing a codified set of rules to organize knowledge, then develop a codified set of practices to verify conformity to the auditor’s set of rules. Next, auditors engage in three strategic tactics to influence members of the target audit space: appealing to the financial benefits of adopting a logic of auditability; appealing to their credentials from established audit markets; and appealing to bona fides in the target audit space to establish credibility. We posit that these sensemaking and sensegiving strategies do not take hold in the blockchain space because auditors are approaching these activities from a different mental model than blockchain natives. Because auditors are unable to adopt the mental model of the blockchain space, they are unable to devise strategies to compellingly influence blockchain natives and secure a stronghold in this new audit space. We developed a model for sensemaking and sensegiving when auditors enter new audit spaces.

This paper challenges and contrasts prior accounts of the seemingly unending expansion of audit firms into new spaces. The study demonstrates that there are limitations to auditors’ abilities to transplant their verification skills in the blockchain field.

One aspect of the opportunities and challenges for cryptoassets concerns decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi is a growing area of cryptoassets that couples blockchain technology, digital assets, and financial services. DeFi is a publicly available system on a decentralized blockchain network, offering financial products and applications. This chapter provides an overview of the DeFi universe that has enormous potential in various industries in the global market. It also discusses the implications of DeFi’s new wave and its applications involving initial coin offerings and stablecoins and specific challenges like the scalability trilemma in DeFi and financial markets.

To analyse the final report of the UK Cryptoassets Taskforce published in October 2018 and discuss the UK’s policy and regulatory approach to crypto-assets and distributed ledger technology in financial services.

This article considers some of the key aspects of the final report of the UK Cryptoassets Taskforce and provides a summary of the next steps the UK authorities have committed to taking in relation to regulation of crypto-assets in the UK.

The approach to regulation of crypto-assets in the UK is evolving and the relevant UK authorities are continuing to improve their understanding of crypto-assets in order to assess the appropriate type and level of regulation that should apply to them. Whilst risks relating to consumer detriment and anti-money laundering have been identified as needing to be addressed as a matter of priority, the UK authorities appear to be taking a measured approach to regulation of crypto-assets. They also remain supportive of the adoption of distributed ledger technology in financial services, whilst noting some potential challenges to scalability.

This article contains valuable information about current policy direction and regulatory thinking in the UK in relation to crypto-assets, and analysis from leading FinTech lawyers.

The purpose of the study is to show that divergent perceptions among regulators, the regulated and the associated regulatory bodies across multiple jurisdictions regarding the nature and functionality of cryptocurrencies hamper the development of a more comprehensive and coherent regulatory framework in curbing crimes and other related risks associated with cryptocurrencies.

The study has used a descriptive doctrinal legal research method to investigate and understand the insights of existing laws and regulations in four selected jurisdictions concerning cryptocurrencies and how these laws could be further improved and developed to reduce crypto-related crimes. Furthermore, the study has also used a comparative research method to conceptualize the contours of the new legal discourse emerging from cryptocurrencies to adopt and implement a sound regulatory framework.

The study illustrated that divergent regulatory treatment among different jurisdictions might suffocate novel digital innovations such as cryptocurrency. These fragmented regulatory approaches by various jurisdictions question the sustainability of the present national legislation adopted to regulate cryptocurrencies. Looking into other jurisdictional developments in regulating cryptocurrencies, it is apparent that a concerted regulatory approach is needed to minimize the abuse of this innovation.

The study has implications for regulators and policymakers to review the current regulatory framework for regulating cryptocurrencies to prevent regulatory arbitrage. The divergent legislative measures concerning cryptocurrency among different jurisdictions question the sustainability of these legislative initiatives, considering the evolving and borderless nature of cryptocurrency. Therefore, this paper will help regulators to consider the present legislative gaps in establishing a common global regulatory approach in the crypto sphere.

The study contributes to the existing body of literature by examining the regulatory frameworks of four jurisdictions, namely, the USA, Canada, China and the EU, related to cryptocurrencies, with a discussion on the development of cryptocurrencies-related laws among these four jurisdictions and their sustainability in curbing crimes in the Darknet.

This chapter looks at challenges that are arising from emerging business models and those that are related to digital finance in general. This chapter first looks at the four challenges relating to new business models, i.e. walled gardens, shadow banking, monetary sovereignty and singleness of money. The chapter then looks at the four challenges relating to digital finance in general, i.e. consumer's data rights, AI ethics, cybersecurity and financial exclusion.

Utility tokens are digital currencies that serve as the only accepted means of payment for services and products provided through a blockchain-based platform. They finance the development of their product or service, reward and incentivize early adopters and network promoters, align economic incentives between supply, demand, and the marketplace, and enhance network effects among all participants. Their tokenomic design consists of the rules and regulations governing a token’s issuance, distribution, allocation, and potential destruction. The chapter describes utility tokens, compares them with other types of cryptoassets, and discusses their value creation process and role in network economics. It also reviews common tokenomic designs, discusses different regulatory approaches, and provides examples of current utility token applications in decentralized applications such as decentralized finance and virtual reality platforms (metaverses).

This chapter reviews developments concerning central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It introduces, analyzes, and discusses the potential implications of CBDCs on the existing cryptoassets landscape. The chapter also provides an overview of the different approaches to adopting and implementing this new form of money. Additionally, it compares traditional cryptocurrencies, privately issued stablecoins, fiat currencies, and CBDCs. Although vastly divergent opinions exist on digital money’s purpose, benefits, and use cases, CBDCs can provide opportunities for innovation and experimentation at a central bank and systemic level. CBDCs may pave the way for democratizing access to unbundled financial services while rethinking the overall purpose of money, monetary systems, and global business.

This study aims to review the academic literature on the utilization of blockchain in accounting practice and research to identify potential opportunities for further scientific investigation and to provide a framework for how accounting practices are impacted by blockchain.

This study is based on a systematic literature review (SLR) of 346 research products available on Scopus, which were mapped with bibliometric analyses and critically discussed in relation to three main topics: the impact of blockchain on accounting and auditing, cryptoassets and finance, business models and supply chain management.

Blockchain has many potential implications for accounting practice and research. In addition to providing the state-of-the-art of accounting research on blockchain and additional avenues for further studies, this study discusses why practitioners are interested in this technology: triple-entry bookkeeping, the inalterability of transactions, the automation of repetitive tasks that do not require discretionary choices, the representation of cryptocurrencies in financial statements, value-chain management, social and environmental auditing and reporting and business model innovation.

The novel contribution of this study is integrated and threefold. First, this SLR provides a clear picture of the state of the accounting research on blockchain using bibliographic and narrative analyses. Second, it investigates how accounting and auditing practices are impacted by blockchain. Third, it contributes to the accounting literature with its discussion of the potential future research trends related to blockchain for accounting.

This chapter first reviews the central banks' two key remits, monetary stability and financial stability, and examines how they will be affected either directly or indirectly by the emerging challenges relating to walled gardens, shadow banking, singleness of the money, customers' data rights, artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, cybersecurity and financial exclusion. This chapter will then review three possible areas of responses that the central banks might take to address the emerging challenges: (1) regulations, (2) promotion of open digital infrastructures and (3) central banks' capabilities upgrade. This chapter will then review possible tools that the central banks might use to implement actions in those three key areas.

Decentralized finance is a technological infrastructure built on a blockchain networking environment that supplies transparent, uncensorable, and decentralized financial services and products. This infrastructure offers the opportunity to replicate traditional financial instruments on a decentralized platform and incorporate added features provided by blockchain technology. It also allows the creation of new instruments native to blockchain technology unavailable through traditional financial institutions. This chapter presents an in-depth analysis of the inner workings of stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, automated market makers, liquidity pools, decentralized lending, synthetic instruments, and asset management. It also provides specific examples for each application and presents some current challenges the sector faces.

The sale of NFTs and the interest in them has “exploded” recently. While there is a lot of information on them, it is not clear what final form they will take. There are several reasons to be uneasy, such as the prevalence of scams, but there are also reasons for optimism and confidence in NFTs. First, they solve the problem of how to own digital assets. Additionally, some of the more reliable and proven cryptoasset exchanges are offering them. However, this innovation will have difficulties reaching a wider audience until more clarity is achieved on two main issues. Therefore, this study aims to clarify what the NFT business models are, and how do they build trust.

This research attempts to identify the NFT business models with case study analysis in three stages. The first stage is a focus group, followed by 16 short case vignettes and finally four longer case studies.

The findings show that there are four NFT business models: (1) NFT creator; (2) NFT marketplace, selling creators’ NFTs; (3) company offering their own NFT (fan token) and (4) computer game with NFT sales.

This research brings the literature on business models and NFTs together to offer clarity on the proven NFT business models.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This chapter applies tests associated with the adaptive market hypothesis (AMH) and Johansen cointegration test. AMH acknowledges the views of the efficient market hypothesis and behavioural finance approach.

Purpose: Cryptocurrencies are considered a new asset class by multiasset portfolio managers. Hence, we examine the AMH and cointegration in the cryptocurrency market to know whether select cryptocurrencies can be diversified.

Findings: We find that cryptocurrencies are efficient and there is a long-run relationship among constituent series, and there is no short-run causality derived from bitcoin, Ethereum and litecoin to bitcoin, while stellar and Dogecoin have short-run causality to bitcoin.

Originality/Value: This chapter is different from the existing one as this is the first study in which the AMH and Johansen cointegration test are applied to check the efficiency and relationship of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero, Stellar, litecoin and Dogecoin.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze FTX cryptocurrency frauds. FTX is a former cryptocurrency exchange platform that went bankrupt because of fraud in 2022.

Using a qualitative method and a case study of FTX, the authors document the multiple fraud schemes perpetrated. The authors collected media and research articles that discussed the FTX case. The authors analyzed 18 articles.

Based on this case, the authors highlight the governance and ethics weaknesses in the FTX environment. The authors also discuss cryptocurrency risks and regulation of cryptocurrencies. The FTX affair has shaken up the international regulatory world, which has been seeking solutions to protect customers and investors and helping banks take positions since 2022.

This study contributes to the fraud literature by deeply examining cryptocurrency fraud risks. In addition, the findings could help financial institutions and guide them in the cryptocurrency world.

Given the many activities of Nigerian investors in the crypto ecosystem, this paper investigates the level of their awareness, attitudes, risk tolerance, experience, reasons for investing and level of financial literacy.

The research approach is based on a self-administered questionnaire. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) permitted the use of its reliable and validated survey instrument, administered in Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in 2019. The results are tabulated and analyzed.

The key results include the participation of respondents, who are generally young males, not fully financially literate but risk-averse. Many held the false view that investing in global markets is a higher risk than in national markets. Their reasons for investing in crypto include the fear of missing out on good opportunities and the desire to have fun. The results also revealed that social media, conversations with non-experts and online articles are among the most used investment information sources, highlighting the role of digital platforms and informal discussions in shaping perceptions and knowledge about cryptocurrencies. Investments in cryptos are financed through savings, regular monthly budgets or borrowed from friends or family. As for specific attitudes to risk, the results suggest that for most respondents, preserving their invested capital is of paramount importance.

The importance of this research also resides in the possibility of comparing the crypto ecosystem in Asia with Nigeria because the same OECD data instrument is employed in data collection. Moreover, this study is the most comprehensive research about Nigerian investors in cryptocurrencies.